The Mexican state closest to Arizona bans most abortions, setting up a regional void

Arizona’s Supreme Court ruled last week that an 1864 law banning most abortions from the moment of conception could be enforced, sending the state into chaos.

April 16, 2024
By Isabela Espadas Barros Leal and Albinson Linares

Though American and Mexican women have long relied on one another for abortion care, the impending restrictions in Arizona are set to create a regional lack of access that spans into the neighboring Mexican state of Sonora — where abortion is also banned with minimal exceptions.

Such stringent abortion restrictions have left organizers scrambling to support women seeking care on both sides of the border. “Because we are on the border with the United States, what happens there affects us,” Leticia Burgos Ochoa, an abortion rights activist and former Mexican senator based in Sonora, told NBC News.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/mexican-state-sonora-closest-arizona-bans-abortions-creating-regional-rcna148060

‘In 24 Hours, You’ll Have Your Pills’: American Women Are Traveling to Mexico for Abortions

Since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, more women have been crossing the border to Mexico for abortion medications and procedures.

CARMEN VALERIA ESCOBAR
APR 3, 2024

At 6 pm, after a long day at work and with her children out of the house, Tania (not her real name) takes four pills and waits for them to melt under her tongue. Six hours later, the pills having dissolved and dispersed through her body, she begins to expel blood clots that she doesn’t look at. She bleeds, but she was told that this could be normal; her belly is in great pain, but she was also told that this would be normal. She cries in the darkness of her room in San Diego. She is afraid to be alone.

The pills that Tania took traveled amid the more than 90,000 people who cross the border every day between Tijuana, in Mexico, and San Diego. At the world’s busiest border crossing, the lines can stretch for blocks. People pass by hostile immigration officers searching for “illegals” among the thousands making the journey. Hidden in a suitcase are boxes of mifepristone and misoprostol, two abortifacients used in conjunction with one another. When Tania took them, she put them under her tongue to speed up the effect, as she was instructed. Mifepristone stops the production of progesterone, while misoprostol, which was originally indicated to treat ulcers, causes contractions and bleeding similar to a miscarriage.

Continued: https://www.wired.com/story/american-women-abortions-mexico/

More Americans who want abortions are turning to Mexico for help

By Catherine E. Shoichet, CNN
Fri July 22, 2022

Verónica Cruz says she's been getting frantic calls from women in the United States.

Abortion clinics have canceled their appointments, and they're scared, she says.

"As soon as the Supreme Court decision came out, they were left without service. There are many people who call us crying, very desperate," Cruz told CNN in a recent interview. "And the majority don't even speak Spanish."

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/21/health/mexico-abortion-assistance-cec/index.html

A Mexican network is smuggling abortion drugs to American women

By David Shortell, CNN
Wed July 13, 2022

Mexico City (CNN) One day late last month, as new abortion restrictions began taking shape in US states, three Mexican women quietly crossed into the country at different points along the border, dozens of abortion-inducing pills hidden in their belongings.

The medication, an FDA-approved two-drug combination, had traveled across the interior of Mexico in the previous days, handled by an underground network of some 30 organizations in the country.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/13/americas/mexican-network-abortion-drugs-usa-intl/index.html

‘We’re here’: Mexican groups slam U.S. abortion restrictions as they help more American women

"It’s a different world," said Sandra Cardona, a member of a Mexican network. A Latin American activist called the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision a "barbaric setback."

July 1, 2022
By Albinson Linares, Noticias Telemundo and Maricruz Gutiérrez

MONTERREY, Mexico — At first glance, it only looks like a roof terrace in a
house in Monterrey in the Mexican state of Nuevo León, two hours from the
border with the U.S.

It's a small space, with a kitchen and bathroom, called La Abortería, or the
abortion place, and it's become a haven for dozens of women and pregnant people
— both from Mexico and the United States — who have decided to interrupt their
pregnancy with the use of medication.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/-mexican-groups-slam-us-abortion-restrictions-help-american-women-rcna36303

01.07.2022